Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon discussing the specific look-fors for the DETAILS for the 21st Century. DETAILS (Determining Educational Technology and Instructional Learning Skillsets) consists of five empiriically-validated constructs or categories for professional development. Each participant who completes the DETAILS Questionnaire (alias LoTi Questionnaire) receives a personalized DETAILS profile summarizing their professional development needs in the following categories:

The two categories that were the most abstract and subject to numerous interpretations included Student-centered Instruction and Complex Student Projects. Provided below is a clarification of both these constructs.

Student-centered Instructioninstruction that is student or learner-centered emphasizes students generating their own questions aligned to a central theme, defining their own tasks, setting their own instructional goals, and/or self-assessing their own learning progress. Specific "look-fors" associated with student-centered instruction include:

* Students generate the essential questions* Student dialogue is purposeful and relates to the topic under consideration* Teacher serves as a facilitator for learning* Teacher focuses on helping students clarify their own understanding of what they want or desire to learn * Students engaged in finding answers to their questions* Students develop their own pathway to find answers, clarify personal misconceptions, or seek solutions* Culminating product is viewed as relevant and engaging to students

Complex Student ProjectsComplex student projects refers to student learning experiences that embed one or more complex thinking strategies in the process by which students complete a final product. Complex thinking skill strategies include problem solving, creative problem solving, decision-making, reasoning, investigation, experimental inquiry, and reflective thinking. These strategies are more specifically defined as follows:

Problem Solving:Identify the goal and obstacleIdentify/research alternative ways to solve the problemSelect an alternative based on the evaluation criteriaTry out the alternativeEvaluate results

Creative Problem Solving:Identify the goal and obstacleBrainstorm alternative ways to solve the problem (invent new ideas or extend known patterns to new situations)Choose an alternative (using insight from previous activity)Try out the alternativeEvaluate results

Reflective Thinking:Identify thinking strategiesAssess strengths and weaknesses of strategies applied in various situationsSelect strategies most likely to be helpful in accomplishing purposeAssess results/appropriateness of strategy selected

I would appreciate your feedback to either the clarified DETAILS constructs or your impressions as to what we accomplished during our afternoon workshop yesterday.